Thursday, April 29, 2010

Hello lovelies; how has your week been so far? I have been frantically busy at work, but the weekend is in sight now, thank goodness!
Today I want to share with you a delightful farmhouse which has been transformed by Tom Scheerer, an interior designer from Manhattan.

I love all the colour and warmth in the home, it feels so cozy. My favourite is the outdoor area with all of those comfy-looking couches - I could definitely spend an afternoon here curling up with a good book!

Monday, April 26, 2010

I have long been a fan of Grey's Anatomy, well pretty much from when it started. So I was completely intrigued to have a peek inside the lovely Ellen Pompeo's home, featured in the May issue of Elle Decor, which she shares with her husband, daughter Stella Luna, and 2 gorgeous pooches!

Ellen and her husband transformed the 1920s Hollywood Hills house with the help of interior designer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, into a luxurious Spanish-style abode with strong Mediterranean influences.

I love the high ceilings, drape-style curtain, mixed in with natural wood seen in the living room floating floors and the timber dining table.

An interesting way to display art is to have it leaning up against the wall, it definitely creates a more relaxed mood and a slightly unpolished look which fits perfectly with the Mediterranean style.

The kitchen has almost an industrial feel to it with the stainless steel fridge and stove, mixed with the timber open-style cabinetry, hanging pots and tiled flooring. Again, art resting against the wall add to the fabulous Mediterranean style.

I love the look and feel of homes with polished timber flooring and would choose this over carpet any day.

So, its with little surprise our first adventure on the renovation for our new apartment is replacing the (hideous) carpet with some glorious polished floorboards.

With no idea what we wanted, outside of polished floorboards, we definitely learnt a lot this weekend!

We had the choice of several types of Australian timber flooring including Blackbutt, Spotted Gum, Tasmanian Oak and Jarrah. The international options included American Oak, Northern Box, Merbau, Southern Box, Kentucky and Hevea. Each wood has a different Janka rating, a measure of the resistance of the wood to indentation. The toughest options were Blackbutt and Spotted Gum.

The alternative to timber flooring we discovered, is Bamboo. I never had considered Bamboo as an option for flooring, but with it being a sustainable resource its definitely an attractive option.

Decisions, decisions! We momentarily decided to go ahead with the Bamboo flooring but, made the last minute decision to go with timber flooring instead. The type? Spotted Gum - a gorgeous timber with loads of character, with an almost ashy look.

It was important to ensure we had a durable floor that was going to last for many years to come and wasn't going to date. The Bamboo was beautiful, but didn't have the gorgeous natural wood-grain that the Spotted Gum has; below is a comparision of the two:

{Bamboo}

{Spotted Gum}

So very exciting, the first thing for our apartment is organised! We are getting it installed before we move (not for 4 weeks) but I will be posting pics once it's in.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Loving this shoot done for Vogue China (may, 2010) with the ever beautiful Natalia Vodianova. The blue / grey mood of the shoot is exactly how the weather feels here today. But that said, I adore this weather and am relishing rugging up and finally getting out some warmer clothes!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Happy Friday lovelies! Lots to celebrate today - Friday, of course; the beginning of a long weekend here; and Sydney's never-ending summer.

This weekend also marks the start of planning our renovation and first up is the floors.

We want to put beautiful polished floorboards in, but the problem is that we have an apartment underneath us, so we have to come up with a solution to get around this so we don't upset our new neighbours with noise from the floors! Will update you of our progress next week.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Now it may seem like a strange to have a post called laundrylove, but I am one of those insanely strange people who loves her laundry! Am I alone?

After the past year living in an apartment with no laundry I am eagerly anticipating our new apartment with a lovely large laundry where I will be able to soak and wash until my heart is content (joking).

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Happy hump day lovelies! This week has felt extraordinarily long, probably because I am anxiously waiting the outcome on our new home!I'm looking forward to sharing it with you soon.

I have a special treat for you today - the delightful interiors portfolio from New York photographer Mark Lund.

On his blog, Mark describes his interior lifestyle photography as 'playing upon the modern idea of "home"' and I can really see this feeling coming through in all of his shots. The warmth and 'homeliness' in each of the shots is nothing short of fabulous!